Royals minor league POY (at midterm)

by daveyork on Jun 16, 2008 10:07 PM EDT Comment 17 comments

Burlington and Wilmington are at their All Star break so I am interested to hear what RR thinks about Royals minor league player of the year. We haven't had a minor league report card for a while.

POY - Joe Dickerson - Wilmington (in a landslide). He has a .911 OPS, .325 Avg., 41 RBI on only 5HRs. Joe has stolen 23 bases also. Both those stats and KC has an everyday prospect! Wilmington is a pitcher friendly park so for me, that makes the numbers that much better. Honorable Mention - Mike Aviles (the new darling of online fandom).

Pitcher of the Year - I'll go with Edgar Cegarra and Carlos Rosa in a dead heat. Both dominated their respective leagues and got promoted early. Cegarra is only 19 years old so that is a huge plus. Rosa being in KC was a surprise but used correctly, he can get some valuable experience until Bale and/or Nunez return.

What do you think? Predictions for the second half? ?

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Agreed on both

Dickerson was a breakout pick of mine and he is exceeding my expectations.

Rowdy Hardy Fan Club member.

by doublestix on Jun 16, 2008 10:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'd have to give the POY to Kila Kaaihue (if not Aviles)

Kaaihue’s numbers are better than Dickerson pretty much across the board. .275/.414/.556 (.970) with 15 HR’s

Pitcher of the year would be Rosa to me, with Blake Wood and Ed Cegarra in a tie for a close second.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jun 16, 2008 11:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Billy Butler, jk

Joe Dickerson is the easy pick in the field but Josh Johnson made it interesting with that .455 OBP.

Pitching was close as Wood would’ve been my choice until his last 2 short outings so I would have to go with Rosa.

2nd Half
Johnny G – no reason just gotta go with the Pizza Man or Lube he has always had good 2nd halves

Pitching- Look out for Dan Duffy his W-L record doesn’t speak to his stats.
BA against .223 36 K’s 8 Bb’s 23 H’s in 27.1, he appears to have settled down after his shaky opening 3 starts.

W L ERA G GS CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB SO GO/AO AVG
0 2 8.49 3 3 0 0 0 11.2 16 11 11 2 5 18 1.29 .327 MAY
2 1 1.72 3 3 0 0 0 15.2 7 5 3 2 3 18 0.38 .130 JUNE

A .130 BA with a 18-3 K/BB ratio usually speaks to good performances. Maybe a September call up to Adv A if he continues this string.

Billy at worst will be Sean Casey jr.

by kcscoliny on Jun 16, 2008 11:59 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Can somebody tell how Joe Dickerson is having a better season than Kila Kaaihue?

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jun 17, 2008 12:02 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It's a bias

Dickerson is still thought of a prospect, Kaaihue is not. It’s the same reason no one gets excited when someone like Roberto Giron performs well in Omaha.

Should the minor league player of the year be the statistical best or the best prospect?

There’s a third layer to it all, as well—for the locals in each location, there are the fan favorites. The inspirational Adam Greenberg was the favorite Wrangler last year according to the website, even though he didn’t have great numbers and definitely isn’t a prospect anymore.

Sometimes you just gotta roll the potato.

by CentralChamps2009 on Jun 17, 2008 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I see what you're saying

But Aviles was the Royals minor league POY last year and at 26 in AAA (and not hitting exceptionally well), was he more of a prospect at that time than Kaaihue is now?

I was just going on performance. It agree that Dickerson is the better prospect.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jun 17, 2008 12:21 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't disagree

I think the official POY awards have used performance instead of projection. If you’re going to have a minor league team POY, it should be the guy who played the best on the team. That’s why Rowdy Hardy was the Wilmington Pitcher of the Year, while Cortes is the guy who got people excited by the end of the year.

Sometimes you just gotta roll the potato.

by CentralChamps2009 on Jun 17, 2008 12:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That, and Rowdy Hardy is God

OMG Banny. FWIW I am only crdtng u w/3 runs allwd bc of DDJ OMFG

by devil_fingers on Jun 17, 2008 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Its not better but can easily be thought of as good.

Dickerson doesn’t have the same power as Kila. His OBP is similar he has a .500 SLG with less power. He is a better all around player and he has less talent around him at Wilmington compared to Kila.

Billy at worst will be Sean Casey jr.

by kcscoliny on Jun 17, 2008 9:46 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I understand that Kila is not considered a strong prospect,

but I don’t understand why. Is it past performance? He was selected as having the best strike zone discipline in the Royals org by BA. That has to be a good thing, doesn’t it? or is that like being the best smelling turd?

All I know is, if this guy ends up being a solid player for the A’s in a few years while the Royals still struggle to find a good 1B, I’m going to put a gun to my head.

Nobody will celebrate harder when the Royals make the playoffs!!

by juano on Jun 17, 2008 11:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Past performance and age

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Jun 17, 2008 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kila

Have you changed your mind about him as well? In my opinion, he should have been promoted to Omaha all along.

Dickerson isn’t repeating a level.

by Stat Ninja on Jun 17, 2008 11:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No, I haven't changed my mind about him

He’s just the player who has had the best season so far of all minor league position players (with the probably exception of Aviles). Unfortunately, that doesn’t make him a good prospect. When Butler gets recalled to the majors, then Kila could go Omaha. Until then, there’s no room for him.

I don’t even know if I’ve changed my mind about Aviles. Like most people, I expect his numbers to fall as the season progresses. What the odds that he ends up being more than a solid utility IFer?

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jun 17, 2008 11:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kila and Aviles

I still don’t understand why Kila wasn’t moved to AAA in the first place this year. Do they expect Shealy to learn something in Omaha? He could wait for his next MLB stint in AA just as easily. That’s why I think there is room for Kila in Omaha.

TPJ defied the odds for a full year, too. Pitchers didn’t approach him as a guy who can’t hit until this year, apparently, and then it wasn’t long before everyone except my girlfriend figured out he couldn’t hit, either. (She voted for him on her All-Star ballot, and I haven’t gotten around to breaking up with her yet. But I digress…)

Moral of the story: I’m beginning to think that Aviles could have a miracle year like TPJ or Junior Spivey after all. At worst, the Royals have found a utility middle infielder, but there is enough room for his numbers to fall quite a bit and still be a possible stopgap at SS.

by Stat Ninja on Jun 18, 2008 9:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Very odd reasoning

I still don’t understand why Kila wasn’t moved to AAA in the first place this year. Do they expect Shealy to learn something in Omaha? He could wait for his next MLB stint in AA just as easily.

You don’t put your major league ready reserves in AA. If you need to call one of them up to the majors, they aren’t going to be ready to face MLB pitching if they’ve been facing AA pitching. And, before this season, Kila hadn’t done anything which showed that he was ready for AAA. He had been quite mediocre.

TPJ defied the odds for a full year, too. Pitchers didn’t approach him as a guy who can’t hit until this year, apparently, and then it wasn’t long before everyone except my girlfriend figured out he couldn’t hit, either

Do you really think that pitchers were just throwing strikes down the middle to him last year and this year they were suddenly staying away from him? So you’re saying they didn’t adjust to him and pitch to his weaknesses all last year? That’s not true at all. Of course he was scouted and every team developed a book on him. And then pitchers pitched to that book and did a good job of getting him out. He’s worse this year, but it isn’t about the pitchers. It’s about TPJ.

I’m beginning to think that Aviles could have a miracle year like TPJ or Junior Spivey after all.

TPJ is a bad hitter who had a bad year last year and followed it with a worse year this year.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jun 18, 2008 9:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

reasoning

The rationale behind most teams skipping AAA is because the best pitching prospects are thought to make AA more competitive. I don’t have an opinion about that one way or another, but that’s part of their reasoning based on interviews with several GM’s I’ve seen and heard.

2007 was a miracle year for TPJ as he fooled management and many fans (not me) into thinking he was an everyday player. The huge dropoff suggests to me that pitchers knew exactly where to pitch him this year. Are you suggesting that he lost that much hitting ability in the offseason?

by Stat Ninja on Jun 18, 2008 10:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The rationale behind most teams skipping AAA is because the best pitching prospects are thought to make AA more competitive.

We weren’t talking about skipping AAA. We were talking about where you put a player like Shealy. A player who is major league ready and would be on the short list of guys to call up if a MLB position player went on the DL. No organization stashes those players in AA. None. And I gave the reason for this above. So AAA was the right place for Shealy. And since Kila hadn’t yet mastered (or performed particularly well at) AA, he needed to repeat that level.

2007 was a miracle year for TPJ as he fooled management and many fans (not me) into thinking he was an everyday player.

He “fooled” management and many fans into thinking that since the Royals had no other SS options and since 2008 was a rebuilding year, that he was worth a shot to see if his bat could improve some and perhaps be enough along with his defense. He was worth a look.

The huge dropoff suggests to me that pitchers knew exactly where to pitch him this year.

Please explain how they could suddenly know how to pitch him this year, but had no idea last year. I can understand them not knowing how to pitch to him in April 2007 and maybe even in May 2007. But every team the Royals play would have scouted him along with every other Royals player. They had ample opportunity to see him, and see his strengths and weaknesses. And it’s not like he’s a difficult hitter to “figure out.” His swing has more holes than a block of swiss cheese. They knew how to pitch to him both last year and this year.

Are you suggesting that he lost that much hitting ability in the offseason?

Players have down seasons (or down half seasons or 1/3 seasons, as the case may be). It happens all the time. Is it because they have suddenly lost their hitting ability? No, they just have down seasons. Unfortunately for TPJ, when he has a down season, it means going from bad to awful.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jun 18, 2008 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs